PowerMapper Software - roundup of 2010

Here's a month-by-month review of the important events of 2010 for our company and customers:

Jan - PowerMapper 5.0 ReleasedPowerMapper 5.0 was released to support and maintenance customers. New features included: new map styles; analytics data import; data visualization; map notes.

Feb - Management BuyoutPowerMapper Software completed the acquisition of Electrum’s PowerMapper and SortSite product business as part of a management buyout (MBO).

Mar - Draft of new Section 508 accessibility standardsThe US Federal Access Board released a draft refresh of the Section 508 Standards and Section 255 Guidelines

Apr - Customer base expands to 30% of Fortune 100Sales figures revealed that PowerMapper and SortSite were used by more than 30% of the Fortune 100.

May - SortSite 4.0 releasedNew features in the release included: English and French spell checking; accessibility and link checking inside PDF documents; link checking inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

Jun - IE6 usage fell below 5% in US and EuropeInternet Explorer 6 (IE6) usage fell below 5% for the first time. First released in 2001, and bundled with Windows XP, this version has plagued web developers with browser compatibility issues for a decade.

Jul - Partnership with Shaw Trust announcedShaw Trust (a UK charity which supports disabled and disadvantaged people) started using SortSite as part of their web accessibility services.

Aug - New HeadquartersWe moved to new headquarters in the center of Edinburgh, providing lots of options for expansion and a linchpin for our growing global operations.

Oct - Transition of Yahoo organic search and PPC to BingThe transition of Yahoo's search results to Bing, concluded with the transfer of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to Microsoft's Adcenter platform.

Nov - Donna Jodhan wins accessibility case against Canadian governmentJustice Kelen ruled that Canada’s federal government must deliver key websites in a usable format for blind and partially-sighted Canadians. The court gave the Canadian government 15 months to make government websites comply with WCAG 2.0.

Dec - BSI publishes BS 8878 web accessibility standardBS 8878 Web Accessibility Code of Practice was published by the British Standards Institute (BSI) to address the growing challenge of digital inclusion. It's useful to anyone new to accessibility as it gives guidance on process, rather than on technical issues.